[Peace] op ed on Rachel

[sparenti]

Hello! Mark Enslin and I, plus the current students at SDaS, are at Evergreen 
College in Olympia Washington, doing a 2 week residency.

This is also the home, and school, of Rachel Corrie, the activist who was bull 
dozered and killed in Palestine last year.

Friends and family of hers are looking for more ways and places to disseminate 
the following article.

Does anyone have any ideas? Daily Illini? Local papers?
Public announcements on WEFT and WILL?

Susan
===== Original Message From "Lori Blewett" <blewettl at evergreen.edu> =====
Hi Susan,
This is an article from Steve Niva.  (He was at your performance tonight).
He is looking for people and papers that might print the article.  Perhaps
there is someone in Urbana who could get it into the paper there.  Any
suggestions/emails?
--Lori Blewett
----- Original Message -----
From: "Niva, Steve" <NivaS at evergreen.edu>
To: "Current Events" <mecrisis at lists.evergreen.edu>
Cc: "Nguyen, Phan" <NguyenP at evergreen.edu>
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 4:05 PM
Subject: [mecrisis] op ed on Rachel


> Folks,
> I've just written this op-ed and want to get a northwest paper (seattle)
to
> run it. Ed Mast is going to take a look and may use his group to put out
> some op eds. But if you all want to use it or suggest other ways to
> configure it for use... feel free.  I've got it down to 850 words, which
is
> still too long for some places and I have a longer version as well.
> Best, Steve
>
>
> Rachel Corrie:  An American Victim of Israel's Wall
> Steve Niva*
>
>
> A year has passed since Rachel Corrie, a 23 year-old American peace
activist
> from Olympia, Washington, was killed by an Israel army bulldozer while
> nonviolently trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian house in
the
> city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
>
> The Israeli government has refused to release its June 2003 final military
> police investigation report to the United States and continues to claim
that
> her death was simply an "unfortunate accident" despite the testimony of
six
> eyewitnesses who that claim that Rachel was clearly visible to the
bulldozer
> drivers with her bright red jacket and that it lifted her up and drove
over
> her repeatedly with its plow down.
>
> It is no wonder that the Corrie family is urging Congress to pass House
> Concurrent Resolution 111, the Rachel Corrie Resolution, which calls upon
> the "United States government to undertake a full, fair, and expeditious
> investigation into the death of Rachel Corrie."
>
> Yet while questions remain about the details of Rachel's death, there
should
> be no question about its ultimate cause.  Rachel was killed by Israel's
> wall.
>
> Palestinian homes in Rafah, including the one Rachel was killed defending,
> are being demolished daily by Israeli bulldozers to make way for a massive
> 6-meter high steel wall Israel is building along the Egyptian border with
> Rafah.
>
> According to United Nation's officials, over the past three years Israel
has
> destroyed nearly 900 houses in Rafah in order to create a one hundred
meter
> "buffer zone" between Palestinian homes and the wall.  Daily shelling and
> armed raids over the past three years have killed nearly 300 Palestinians
> and have left more than 8,600 people homeless.  In addition, British
> activist Tom Hurndall and the BBC cameraman James Miller were also killed
in
> Rafah last year near the wall.
>
> This wall is the Gaza version of the massive wall and fence barrier that
> Israel is building deep within Palestinian lands in the West Bank, which
> herds Palestinians into tiny enclaves, separating hundreds of thousands
from
> their families and land.  The International Court of Justice is widely
> expected to declare this barrier both illegal and unwarranted by the end
of
> this month.
>
> The Israeli army's specious justification to the international community
for
> the systematic degradation of Rafah has been the ongoing search for
tunnels
> across the Egyptian border which it claims are used to smuggle weapons for
> Palestinian militants to kill Israeli civilians.   Some Israeli apologists
> even claim that Rachel was knowingly defending these tunnels and, thus,
> suicide bombers.
>
> While no one disputes the existence of a small number of tunnels that
funnel
> weapons to militants, Israeli security justifications for destroying Rafah
> in order to find these tunnels cannot be taken at face value.  Nor can
> callous claims that Rachel was defending tunnels and suicide bombers.
> First, the Israeli army does not even claim that any tunnels were found
> under the home of Dr. Samir Nasrallah, or others in the bloc of houses
> Rachel was defending when she was killed.
> Second, any weapons that get through tunnels are only used in guerrilla
> actions against soldiers and settlers within the Gaza Strip, not against
> civilians within Israel.  One of the main arguments Israeli officials use
to
> justify building the barrier in the West Bank is the fact that no
> Palestinian suicide bombers have come from Gaza in the past three years
due
> to the heavily monitored 30-mile electrified fence that keeps its 1.3
> million impoverished Palestinians isolated from the world, and Israel.
> Third, Israel possesses ample equipment to discover and unearth these
> tunnels without resorting to widespread destruction and violence.  The
> governor of Rafah, Majid Ghal, rejects Israel's claims about tunnels as
> nonsense.  "What they are doing is to carve out a buffer zone between
Rafah
> and the border. The Israelis have always said they do not want Palestine
to
> control its borders or to have borders with other countries. They are
trying
> to drive people out."
> The wall that killed Rachel, and has destroyed the lives of thousands of
> Palestinians in Rafah, is being built for one reason:  to protect the
> security of the 7,000 Israeli settlers with green lawns and swimming pools
> who illegally occupy 30 per cent of Gaza's land.  The wall and home
> demolitions in Rafah, as elsewhere, are merely an ongoing land-grab
> masquerading as a justifiable security policy.  A wall built on Israel's
> recognized 1967 borders, by contrast, would be both legitimate and
> defensible.
> While Israel has every right to defend itself against horrific and
> unjustifiable suicide bombings, it has no right to kill civilians and
> destroy homes in order to secure its illegal settlements.  As Amnesty
> International stated in October, 2003, Israeli actions in Rafah constitute
> war crimes; a reign of terror on innocent civilians unwarranted by
security
> concerns.
> In order to honor Rachel's life, as well as the lives of all Palestinians
> and Israelis who have been killed in this conflict, we must speak out and
> demand an end to Israel's walls, settlements and occupation.
> *Steve Niva teaches international politics and Middle East studies at The
> Evergreen State College in Olympia and worked with Rachel Corrie before
she
> was killed.
>
>
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